Shortly after John Halderman left Leavenworth, Kansas Territory, for a trip east (Washington, D. C., it is nearly certain), William Stanley writes him from Leavenworth regarding some "excitement" that had occurred there the very day Halderman left. Many were fearful of "attack" and thus the alarms were "sounded. . . . Hundreds of free state men were soon in arms, and the proslavery party exhibited more of apprehension than I have ever witnessed before." He mentions proslavery men leaving for Shawnee, the fact that many free-state men had recently been driven out of nearby Kickapoo, Kansas Territory, that John Calhoun was given a military escort to Lecompton, and Stanley's confidence that the [Lecompton] constitution would pass the Congress.

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Shortly after John Halderman left Leavenworth, Kansas Territory, for a trip east (Washington, D. C., it is nearly certain), William Stanley writes him from Leavenworth regarding some "excitement" that had occurred there the very day Halderman left. Many were fearful of "attack" and thus the alarms were "sounded. . . . Hundreds of free state men were soon in arms, and the proslavery party exhibited more of apprehension than I have ever witnessed before." He mentions proslavery men leaving for Shawnee, the fact that many free-state men had recently been driven out of nearby Kickapoo, Kansas Territory, that John Calhoun was given a military escort to Lecompton, and Stanley's confidence that the [Lecompton] constitution would pass the Congress.